Field: The present invention is directed to sporting equipment and is more particularly directed to a training device to train golfers to putt more accurately.
Prior Art: Many golfers are quite proficient at getting the golf ball from "tee to green." What often separates the pro from the near pro is the ability to putt well. Among those who know how to "read the green," the winners are the ones who can physically make the ball go where they want it to go. In other words, many golfers can look at a ball lying on a green and know in which direction and with what amount of relative force the ball should be driven to sink the putt. However, their problem lies in their lack of physical ability to strike the ball properly with the putter.
It is important to be mentally educated in the art of putting. However, the only way a golfer can become a proficient putter is to train his muscles to "remember" the precise movements needed to cause the ball to go where his mind knows it needs to go. This training of the muscles is referred to as "muscle memory."
Of course, golfing itself is one form of muscle training. Also commonly known are simple putting cups, usable, for example, on floor surfaces such as carpet. Some of these cups have automatic return devices, in which for example, a battery powered mechanism knocks the balls back to the golfer if he correctly sinks the put.
Another putting practicing device is the "Putting Tutor" sold by Putting Tutor of Boise, Idaho, which is represented to be covered by U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,718. This device apparently has a ramped slope with a hole in it. The angle of the ramp can be reoriented. The golfer attempts to gauge the slope of the ramp and putts the ball similar to the way he would on a normal green.
The mentioned types of golf practicing devices have not been totally satisfactory. A golf ball does not react the same way on a floor surface, such as carpet, as it would on a green. In addition, artificial slopes do not precisely simulate the natural slopes and curvatures of natural green.
In addition, the golfer may have failed to mentally visualize the intended and correct direction of travel. The successful putt may have been a result of putting in the general right direction. If the golfer's mind has not, prior to putting the ball, actually visualized a line of travel, it is questionable whether any effective muscle memory has occurred. In order to improve putting ability, the mind and the muscles must coordinate to duplicate the motions learned from previous successful putts.
Even on a natural green, the golfer does not have an instant feedback as to whether he has struck the ball precisely in the intended direction. He must wait to see if the ball goes in the hole. By the time the golfer's mind has registered that a putt has been sunk, his muscles may have forgotten the precise movements they made to drive the ball in the intended direction.
The real need is for a device which will induce the golfer to visualize for each practice putt the intended putting direction and to give instant feedback to the golfer when he has driven the ball in any direction other than the visualized and intended direction.